The Reflex Blue Show: An Interview with Donovan Beery
On May 2nd I sat down at HOW Design Live with Donovan Beery from The Reflex Blue Show to talk about Cultivating a Creative Culture.
Donovan’s near decade-old show has been dubbed “one of the best podcasts covering the graphic design industry,” with previous guests like Aaron Draplin, Val Head, Von Glitschka, and Chip Kidd.
In a media room at the HOW conference’s Hyatt Regency Chicago venue, we chatted over the course of ~40 minutes on a broad range of topics pertaining to design, our industry, and…well, some example exchanges:
DB: And the whole idea is that you want to create a culture and a vibe in your creative space that nurtures people, that makes them want to work there, and also gets the best creativity out of them without burning out.
JD: Absolutely. Burnout is a big part of this book in fact, because people come into this industry as passionate people. They go to school because they’re passionate about what they do. People come into work and apply their skills to their “work” work, but then they go home and the truly passionate people are tearing apart code on their laptop on the couch while they’re watching something on Netflix. Or they’re figuring out a new way to use Illustrator via tutorials online. So people come into the office and they apply their skills, but they don’t stop there. Truly passionate people always have that fire within them. So why just bring them into the office, make them (part of) a production line when we can foster and grow their creativity in the office space as well?
DB: Now Justin I’ve gotta mention there’s one part of the book that really stood out to me here: Street Fighter. Big fan. Are you a fan?
JD: Ah you’re speaking my language. I was actually, uh, the caliber nerd I am, I was actually in Street Fighter tournaments in high school. So I’m a hyper nerd.
DB: I wish we were recording this in my office, because I have a Street Fighter II arcade machine there.
JD: Aw, we could’ve thrown down.
Straight from the interview I had to make a beeline for O’Hare Airport to make a late morning flight to Miami, so it was fantastic to get the opportunity to chat.
Thanks, Donovan!
